"Those with talent who naturalise today can easily leave the country of adoption for greener pasture tomorrow; it is what these developed countries do to keep them there that really matters.

Between the hard-working stateless man who has spent much of his life toiling on Malaysian soil and the corrupt politician who continues to squander our national wealth, it does not take a genius to distinguish who is the real patriot." By Josh Hong in Malaysiakini

VISITORS

During 8888 movement in 1988, we achieved some success. But the much anticipated 9999 movement in 1999 just fizzled out. The uprising we hoped for on 666 in 2006 also never materialized. Dr Salai Tun Than’s call for the idea of civil disobedience and much hyped home return was also squashed. We missed the opportunity to up rise and throw out the military rulers during the Depaying Incident. God forbade, if they do any thing bad on our leaders or even if bad things accidentally happens, we must prepare to mobilize the whole population to over-throw this SPDC military Government.

CHINA OLYMPICS

The Chinese authorities haven’t yet realised in their enthusiasm to show it off, that the so-called ‘bird’s nest’ design of the main O’Lympic stadium looks more like a bundle – of people, of freedoms, of whatever you like – brutally bound with tapes of concrete and steel and bursting to be freed from its bonds.

And now the IOC is using the forthcoming 2008 O’Lympics to play the ultimate Irish joke: staging this ultimate symbol of international togetherness, fair play and good fellowship in the world’s biggest and most notorious dictatorship, Communist China.

The O’Lympic Committee has tried the same trick before, of course, in 1936 in Berlin, in hopes of helping appease Adolph Hitler’s ambitions for his Nazi Third Reich. But that didn’t work too well, as three years later it was followed by World War II.

Lots of lovers of freedom and democracy around the world are calling for a boycott of the Beijing O’Lympics. This would be poetically appropriate in an Irish sort of way, as it was in Ireland that tenants ostracised the eponymous Captain Boycott for refusing to reduce their crippling rents.

I’m against the boycott myself, however, as I believe that the Chinese Communist Party will be infinitely more effectively shamed by the protests by exiled Tibetans and other dissidents that have already started dogging the progress of the O’Lympic torch relay.

I love the logo that protesters against the Chinese regime have designed expressly for their purpose: a facsimile of the famous O’Lympic rings, composed of handcuffs.

I also love the fact that, as the Chinese authorities haven’t yet realised in their enthusiasm to show it off, that the so-called ‘bird’s nest’ design of the main O’Lympic stadium looks more like a bundle – of people, of freedoms, of whatever you like – brutally bound with tapes of concrete and steel and bursting to be freed from its bonds.

To make matters even more embarrassing, this symbol of China’s ‘progress’ under totalitarian rule is shrouded in thick smog, reminding the viewer that another price the people are paying for the system that socially and politically enslaves them is some of the world’s worst pollution – including water so suspect that some teams are bringing a clean supply with them; produce so full of poison that the US team is intending to import its own food; and air so unhealthy that some athletes have started wondering whether they’re prepared to risk breathing it.

If you’re starting to suspect by now that the Irish Conspiracy is anti-Chinese, forget it. What we Irish are against is repression. Of ourselves by the British, as happened for centuries. And of anyone else by their rulers, anywhere and everywhere it happens, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and especially in the worst of all cases, China.

As everybody knows, China is an ancient civilisation, whose people were showing their genius for agriculture, the arts and invention while most of the rest of us were still stuck back in the stone age. But thanks to a string of emperors and their modern-day successors, the people of China – a quarter of the world’s population – have never in all of recorded history enjoyed a day’s freedom.